The Community Services and Health Industry Skills Council (CS & HISC) will take into consideration feedback from the Australian Dispensing Opticians Association (ADOA) in relation to a review of the Certificate IV course in Optical Dispensing.
The review is part of a much broader review of all the Health Training Packages with one of the main aims being to improve the assessment aspect of the packages to ensure graduates do in fact attain the required skills.
Both Murray O’Brien, President of ADOA Victoria and Martin Kocbek President of ADOA NSW said they had “deep concerns” about the first draft produced by the CS & HISC, in particular amalgamation and deletion of some of the Units of Competency.
Mr. O’Brien and Mr Kocbek, submitted extensive submissions in response to the draft and as a consequence were invited to participate in the Subject Matter Expert Group Conference.
Mr. O’Brien said the conference enabled ADOA to “freely put forward our recommendations and hopes for the qualification”.
“Both Martin and I now feel very sure the ADOA view has been well and truly understood and that not only will no course content be lost, but we may in fact be able to expand and enhance the optical content of the course,” said Mr. O’Brien.
Mr Kocbek added “Also be assured that the face to face delivery of the course will continue in NSW with the move to a newly refurbished site at Randwick. The move to the new health services precinct will be beneficial and raise the recognition of optical dispensing.
